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Air Serbia - Montenegro Airlines unveil partnership

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Air Serbia and Montenegro Airlines have established closer ties by inking a wide-ranging code share agreement, marking the first major development since the latter concluded a commercial strategic partnership deal with Etihad Airways last year. Following a decision made by Montenegro Airlines' Board of Directors to commence cooperation with Air Serbia, the two sides agreed for the Montenegrin carrier to codeshare on Air Serbia's flights from Belgrade to 32 destinations. They include Abu Dhabi, Amsterdam, Athens, Banja Luka, Beirut, Berlin, Brussels, Bucharest, Copenhagen, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Istanbul, Larnaca, London, Milan, Moscow, New York (pending regulatory approval), Ohrid, Paris, Podgorica, Prague, Sarajevo, Skopje, Sofia, St Petersburg, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Tel Aviv, Thessaloniki, Tivat, Zagreb and Zurich. In return, Air Serbia will place its flight numbers and designator code on Montenegro Airlines' services from Podgorica and Tivat to Belgrade, as well as from the Montenegrin capital to Rome.

The President of the Montenegro Airlines Board of Directors, Daliborka Pejović, said in a statement, "The agreement with Air Serbia is an exceptional opportunity for helping us find a future strategic partner, which is the objective of the Privatisation Council of the Government of Montenegro". She added, "We believe that signing the codeshare agreement with Air Serbia is an extraordinary opportunity for the future of Montenegro Airlines. In doing so, we have opened the door of our national airline to enter Etihad Airways Partners, with airlines such as Alitalia and Air Berlin, which was an objective of the meeting held with representatives of Etihad Airways in Abu Dhabi in February this year”. Montenegro Airlines' CEO, Zoran Kostić, said, "Statistics show that Podgorica is the final destination for 20% of Air Serbia's passengers from New York. Therefore, we are now able to concur markets which were previously unavailable to us".

In February, Etihad Airways presented its plans to return Montenegro Airlines to profitability and improve the carrier's overall business. Etihad's plans outline for Montenegro Airlines to significantly boost frequencies on profitable routes and improve its overall fleet efficiency. Furthermore, the national carrier of the United Arab Emirates identified codeshare partners which would give Montenegro Airlines access to an additional fifty destinations. The new partnership is also set to boost synergies between the two carriers, providing Montenegro Airlines access to benefits enjoyed by Etihad and its partners on the market. The measures are expected to increase passenger numbers, support the local tourism industry and generate a profit for the carrier in a relatively short period of time.

Late last year, the Serbian Prime Minister, Aleksandar Vučić, said that Air Serbia is considering regional acquisitions. "I believe that in the coming period Air Serbia will acquire an airline from the Balkans. This will be the next major piece of news. Were there no political obstacles, Air Serbia would have already acquired two or three companies in the region", Mr Vučić said at the time. Furthermore, the Serbian Minister for Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Policy, Aleksandar Vulin, said Montenegro Airlines' operations could be run out of Belgrade following negotiations between the carrier and Etihad. Etihad Airways itself has stakes in eight airlines, four of which are in Europe, including Air Serbia. Its partner Alitalia is now pursuing a stake in Air Malta.

Comments

So when there was information that Croatia Airlines might be looking into Montenegro Airlines I remember most comments were positive. Now when it might be Air Serbia interested in Montenegro Airlines it's suddenly very bad news? Ok...

Diversification is badly needed for those planes to be even half full during winter.Also O&D passengers need to increase considerably between Serbia and the US because so far the flights are overwhelmingly depended on connecting passengers.

OT: ex YU medal count at Olympics, best count ever. Best up to now was 1984 in LA with 18 medals, out of them 7 Goldnow we hve 8 Gold already with 16 medals and there is still 3 medals possible in vaterpolo, 2 in Basketball and either Gold or Silver in Volleyballnice achievement for the region. The airports will be full awaiting the heroes

Well, in theory if 2-3 million people across exYU decide to forget about their daily misery and flock to their airports to cheer the athletes, and if 20% of them buy a coffee or another snack while at the airport, that could boost the airport revenues and the management may even have some extra money to invest in the infrastructure expansion - unless they prefer to simply steal or pump out everything of course.

of course there is :-)didnt Croatia National Team flew with Air Tahiti A340 to Brazil in 2014maybe now with 5 Gold medals (maybe even a 6th), who knows, there might be an extra flight GIG-ZAG with a reception at the airport

Etihad/Air Serbia are going to buy MGX no doubt about it. This is exactly the same way they started with Jat. First they signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation, then came the codeshare and then they announced a strategic parntership.

They could only buy YM and shut them down to 99%, keep a bit alive to take over their AOC - rename them to let's say Air Montenegro as a 100% part of JU. Consolidate the network from MNE and route 90% of traffic via BEG to feed their hub. Question remains if Montenegrins would be happy with that... The MNE state could be happy with it to get rid of need to support YM and JU can feed their hub further and at same time get rid of a local competitor.

All the bad news we have heard from MGX lately tells me they have decided to devalue the airline (not that it was worth much anyway) and when they put it for sale the future owner... khm Etihad/Air Serbia ... will get paid to take it over.

Etihad contract gives Air Serbia one terminal at Belgrade airport for exclusive use from January 2014. Hogan and Kondic never mentioned when will they take over the terminal and get it refurbished as per contract. Airport concession is getting closer yet Air Serbia is still silent on one of the most important decisions regarding Belgrade airport.

Good thing for Montenegro citizens to have this connection, as before people were using Istanbul and Paris (MGX had codeshare with AF) for connection flight to US.

I only hope that this deal wont rise the price between two countries, as i see now ASL ticket cost 109.22EUR instead of 99.22 to BEG.

For those who think that ASL/EY should change the name if they buy the company, dont see the reason, because MGX is not some old company who was always in late and had canceled flights as JAT did last 15 years.

This is really bad news for Croatia Airlines. Don't anybody in the Croatia see that nobody wants to do business with Croatia Airlines as long as they have the current Ceo. Wake up , this waiting is something that Croatia Airlines doesn't have.

This is exactly what was said so many times by our colleague Purger. They can not live within margins of false financial results and hidden state aid such is PSO. In the best scenario OU will become minor, feeder company for LH group. I do not want to think about the worst scenario.

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